Sunday, June 08, 2008
Lost!
I looked down at my am and realized why my wrist felt bare—my running bracelet was gone! I nearly panicked. I was due to run my leg of a triathlon in just minutes, and had gone to the car to shed my warm-up shirt. On the way back to the start line, I noticed that my lucky bracelet was missing. My colorful hand-braided bracelet has graced my wrist for dozens of races during my nearly 10 years of running. This 4.2 mile run of the triathlon was my first race in 2008, and so I had ritualistically placed it on my wrist the night before. It’s one of those superstitious, yet comforting traditions that I continue. And so, although the bracelet has virtually no material value, I was unnerved by its disappearance.
I ran back to the car to see if the bracelet were caught in the sleeve of my discarded shirt. No, it wasn’t tangled up in the shirt, or lying on the seat or floor of the car. I checked my watch. Only about two minutes before my friend Ken would come whizzing past the start on his bike, tagging me for my run. I couldn’t waste any more time looking, lest I miss his tag. I nervously and quickly walked back to the start, scanning the ground for my talisman.
And just as I reached the rest of the runners in the group at the start line, I saw it! I snatched the bracelet from the ground and slipped it back on, tightening it a bit. The other runners seemed totally unaware that such a valuable item had been lying in the dirt right under their noses! (But would my charm have worked magic for any other runner anyway?!)
Soon I was off running, feeling the familiar tickle of the bracelet’s yarn ties on my arm. I’d like to say that I was the fastest of all the 6.75 K runners, all due to the confidence and inspiration engendered by my running bracelet. Not quite! But I did run a personally satisfying and competitive race, and our team placed first in our age division. Today my lucky race bracelet is tucked safely away in my drawer with my running gear until the next event.
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